ISIS attacks in Afghanistan being directed by Hafiz Saeed: Afghan officials to Pakistan

Jul 28, 2016,

NEW DELHI: The Afghanistan government on Tuesday complained to Pakistani officials that former Lashka-e-Taiba chief Hazif Muhammad Saeed is directing Islamic State attacks in Afghanistan, an American media outlet has reported.

The US government-funded Voice of America has carried a report from Islamabad, that quotes an Afghan government statement that it had told Pakistani officials about Saeed's involvement with the ISIS in Afghanistan.

Afghanistan's assertion came at high-level meeting in Kabul on Tuesday. The meeting was meant to focus on security along the AfPak border, and was attended by officials from Afghanistan, Pakistan and NATO.

Pakistan is yet to respond to the assertion from Kabul, the Voice of America report said.

The report also states that Kabul's accusation against Saeed caused a fair bit of confusion among officials and journalists in Pakistan on Wednesday. The confusion was over doubts over whether the Afghan officials were confusing Hafiz Muhammad Saeed with Hafiz Saeed Khan, chief of the Islamic State of Khorasan Province (ISKP). ISKP is the Afghanistan arm of ISIS.

The Voice of America report also noted that this was the first allegation of links between ISIS and Hafiz Saeed, who is a designated terrorist by India and the US. He is accused by India of being behind a number of attacks on its soil, including the 26/11 Mumbai attack.

ADEN: Yemen’s Houthi rebels and ousted president Ali Abdullah Saleh’s group on Thursday formed a 10-member “supreme council” to run Yemen, in what the government condemned as a blow to already stalled UN-brokered peace talks.

UN special envoy Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed said the move “contravenes” the rebels’ commitment to the peace process and “represents a grave violation” of the UN Security Council Resolution 2216.

The Shiite Houthi rebels and the General People’s Congress of Saleh have agreed to “form a supreme political council of 10 members,” according to a statement carried by a rebel-run news agency.

It did not name the council’s members.

The job of the council will be to “manage state affairs politically, militarily, economically, administratively, socially and in security.”

The statement said the aim is to unify efforts to confront the UN-recognized government of President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi.

A Saudi-led alliance intervened in Yemen’s conflict in March 2015 to try to restore President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi to power after the Houthis seized Sanaa and advanced on his temporary headquarters in Aden, forcing him to seek help from Saudi Arabia.

‘Clear violation’

Ould Cheikh Ahmed, who has been brokering 100 days of talks aimed at a peaceful settlement, said the move endangered the negotiations being held in Kuwait.

“This is a clear violation of the Yemeni constitution” as well as Resolution 2216, he said in a statement released in Kuwait.

The resolution calls on the Houthis to withdraw from territories they occupied in 2014, to hand over their arms and return state institutions to the legitimate government.

Ould Cheikh Ahmed, however, did not say if the rebels’ move would result in the suspension of the peace talks.

Yemen’s Foreign Minister Abdulmalek Al-Mikhlafi said it amounted to a “new coup” and accused the rebels of “missing an opportunity for peace.”

The rebels have “missed an opportunity for peace which the Yemeni people needed... and insisted on foiling the negotiations,” Mikhlafi said on his Twitter account.

“We call on the international community to condemn the new coup against the constitutional legitimacy and hold the Houthi-Saleh alliance responsible for foiling the talks,” he said.

Frustrated power grab

The rebels overran Sanaa in September 2014 and expanded their control to other parts of Yemen.

In February last year, they had set up a “Supreme Revolutionary Council” to run the country after they announced the dissolution of the government and parliament.

UN-sponsored talks between the rebels and representatives of Hadi’s government, which began on April 21, have failed to make headway.

The negotiations were launched after the United Nations secured an agreement on a cease-fire in the war-torn country.

The main stumbling block at the talks in Kuwait was the form of the government in Sanaa.

The Hadi government say that he is the legitimate head of state and should preside over a transitional period in the country.

But the rebels insist on forming a national unity government to oversee the transition.

More than 6,400 people have been killed in Yemen since the coalition intervened to restore Hadi’s government.

Another 2.8 million people have been displaced and more than 80 percent of the population urgently needs humanitarian aid, according to UN figures.

http://www.arabnews.com/node/961001/middle-east

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In new Daesh video, church attacker threatens destruction of France

29 July 2016

PARIS: Daesh's affiliated news agency Aamaq on Thursday released a video purportedly showing one of the two men who attacked a church in northern France this week urging all Muslims to destroy the country.

In the pre-recorded video, Abdel-Malik Nabir Petitjean, formally identified as one of the men who killed a priest in the attack before being shot dead by police, addresses President Francois Hollande and Prime Minister Manuel Valls directly.

“The times have changed. You will suffer what our brothers and sisters are suffering. We are going to destroy your country,” the man Aamaq alleges is Petitjean says in the recording.

“Brothers go out with a knife, whatever is needed, attack them, kill them en masse,” he says, calling on Muslims to attack allies of the international coalition forces fighting Islamist militants in Syria.

Reuters could not immediately verify the authenticity of the video.

http://www

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LeT terrorist led funeral procession of Burhan Wani: Hafiz Saeed

PTI | Jul 28, 2016

LAHORE: A LeT 'ameer' was leading the funeral procession of Hizbul commander Burhan Wani who was killed in an encounter, Mumbai attack mastermind and JuD chief Hafiz Saeed has claimed, in a pointer to the Pakistan-based terror group's role in anti-India protests in Kashmir Valley.

"Burhan Wani was martyred. Lakhs of Kashmiris came to the streets to attend his funeral. Did you see a man who was being carried on shoulders by the crowd? Do you know this youth who was leading the procession? Do you know who he is? He is 'ameer' of LeT," said Saeed, the founder of Laskar-e-Taiba (LeT).

His statement that LeT 'ameer' Abu Dujana was leading Wani's funeral procession earlier this month after the young Hizb terrorist was killed in an encounter with security forces in Kashmir was made at a rally in Faisalabad, about 185 km from here.

Saeed, designated a terrorist by the United States with a $10 million bounty on his head, heads the Jamaat-ud-Dawa( JuD), which is seen as a front group for the outlawed LeT.

He also claimed that Kashmiri separatist leader Asiya Andrabi called him over phone and sought help.

"Asiya Andrabi called me over phone and asked, 'where are my Pakistani brothers? We are in trouble'," Saeed said.

"I told my Pakistani brothers to respond to her call. It was immediately decided to send a group to Kashmir and within three days all preparations were done. Several people from Faisalabad went to Kashmir," he said.

Saeed, who travels freely and gives speeches inciting people to attack Western and Indian interests, had warned more violence in Kashmir in a recent interview.

The LeT was behind the 2008 Mumbai terror attack and was banned in Pakistan in 2015.

ISIS attacks in Afghanistan being directed by Hafiz Saeed: Afghan officials to Pakistan

Jul 28, 2016,

NEW DELHI: The Afghanistan government on Tuesday complained to Pakistani officials that former Lashka-e-Taiba chief Hazif Muhammad Saeed is directing Islamic State attacks in Afghanistan, an American media outlet has reported.

The US government-funded Voice of America has carried a report from Islamabad, that quotes an Afghan government statement that it had told Pakistani officials about Saeed's involvement with the ISIS in Afghanistan.

Local militant outfits, as part of supporting their members, have begun providing financial support for family members of those who have been killed or are now behind bars, police said.

Such families have been divided into two groups. The first group, named Maju, includes families of militants who are now in prison or have gone into hiding as part of their operations.

The second group named Deowa includes families of militants who have been killed during operation.

Monirul Islam, chief of the counter-terrorism and transnational crime unit, disclosed this information while addressing a press briefing at the media and community centre of Dhaka Metropolitan Police yesterday.

Information Minister Hasanul Haq Inu has urged the deputy commissioners to fight against militancy as a part of their constitutional duty.

“The country is now fighting three types of war. We are fighting to curb militancy, ensure development and good governance,” he said, while talking to journalists at the ending of the four-day long Deputy Commissioner Conference held at the secretariat on Friday.

“The deputy commissioners' role in this fight is very important as they are working at field level. Their role acts as a bridge between central government and field level,” Inu added.

The minister said the government can take decisions on specific issues after considering the opinion of the common people with the help of the deputy commissioners.

For the first time, police have officially identified the Gulshan attack mastermind as Bangladesh-origin Canadian citizen Tamim Ahmed Chowdhury, and said he used to visit the Kallyanpur militants in their hideout.

Tamim held meetings with the Kallyanpur militants to inspire them and provide financial support for their terrorist activities, according to the statement of a case which was filed yesterday by Mirpur Model police station Inspector (operation) Shajalal Alam in connection with Tuesday’s police raid.

Nine militants were killed when police carried out the drive in Dhaka’s Kallyanpur early Tuesday.

ADEN: Yemen’s Houthi rebels and ousted president Ali Abdullah Saleh’s group on Thursday formed a 10-member “supreme council” to run Yemen, in what the government condemned as a blow to already stalled UN-brokered peace talks.

UN special envoy Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed said the move “contravenes” the rebels’ commitment to the peace process and “represents a grave violation” of the UN Security Council Resolution 2216.

The Shiite Houthi rebels and the General People’s Congress of Saleh have agreed to “form a supreme political council of 10 members,” according to a statement carried by a rebel-run news agency.

It did not name the council’s members.

The job of the council will be to “manage state affairs politically, militarily, economically, administratively, socially and in security.”

Full report at:

http://www.arabnews.com/node/961001/middle-east

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Iranian men wear hijabs to protest against headscarf law

29 July 2016

Iranian men have begun to wear hijabs to protest the country’s strict headscarf law, which requires women veil their heads in public. Pictures of several men wearing the women’s attire have garnered attraction online.

Several images have been posted online of men wearing the hijab standing next to their spouse or female relative without a headscarf. Women have led the protests on the headscarf law by shaving their hair.

Masih Alinejad, an Iranian activist currently living in New York, instigated the men-wearing-hijab protest. Alinejad started the “My Stealthy Freedom” campaign, where originally Iranian women upload pictures online without a hijab, but has since morphed into this latest viral form of protest

Yemen’s Ansarullah forces launched a barrage of missile attacks on the positions of Saudi-funded mercenaries in the Nihm District of Sana’a, killing a large number of soldiers in the process, several sources said.

Ansarullah forces launched a number of domestically-manufactured “Zelzal-3” propellant missiles at a joint camp of Saudi Coalition and pro-Hadi forces, destroying several vehicles, North of the Nihm region, Al-Masirah reported.

Full report at:

http://en.farsnews.com/newstext.aspx?nn=13950507000668

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Erdogan wants presidential control over army

29 July 2016

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan wants the armed forces and national intelligence agency brought under the control of the presidency, a parliamentary official said on Thursday, part of a major overhaul of the military after a failed coup.

Erdogan's comments came after a five-hour meeting of Turkey's Supreme Military Council (YAS) - chaired by Prime Minister Binali Yildirim and including the top brass - and the dishonorable discharge of nearly 1,700 military personnel over their alleged role in the abortive putsch on July 15-16.

JEDDAH: The plot to attack the Saudi Embassy in Tehran and the consulate in Mashhad was hatched and supported the Iranian regime, said Adel Al-Jubeir, foreign minister.

Addressing a joint press conference with his Uzbek counterpart Abdulaziz Kamilov, Al-Jubeir said: “The news coming from the Iranian media indicates that no severe punishment will be meted to the aggressors. This is not strange considering that over 12 embassies were attacked in Iran over the past 25 years with impunity.”

He added: “This is also the case with the recent attacks on the Saudi diplomatic missions. It is clear evidence that the operation was plotted and supported by the Iranian regime.”

Al-Jubeir was answering a question about the investigation into the attacks.

Kamilov said the Kingdom was of the first countries to recognize the independence of Uzbekistan.

http://www.arabnews.com/node/961496/saudi-arabia

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Blair still playing leading role in Hamas-Israel talks: Hamas sources

29 July 2016

Tony Blair has been working behind the scenes to mediate a peace deal between Hamas and Israel, Hamas sources have revealed to Middle East Eye.

Blair, the former UK prime minister who since leaving office has carved out a career as a Middle East diplomat, was successful in hammering out a recent deal that will see Qatar pay $30m towards the wages of public-sector workers in Gaza.

Senior sources within Hamas – who spoke on condition of anonymity – told Middle East Eye this week that Blair had returned to the Qatari capital Doha recently to play a leading role in negotiations between the Palestinian movement and Israel.

The Mormon church has pulled its 15 missionaries out of Turkey, citing concern about unstable conditions in the country, following a failed coup attempt July 15 that killed about 290 people and wounded around 2,000 others.

“The church has transferred 15 young volunteers serving in Turkey to Germany,” a statement by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints said, according to a news release published by the website “Mormon newsroom.”

U.S.-based Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen, who is accused by the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) of masterminding the failed July 15 coup attempt, would have returned to Turkey as Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini did to Iran if the putsch had been successful, Justice Minister Bekir Bozdağ has said.

“He would have come back like Khomeini and they would have formed their own order. It would have been a totally different Turkey. I wouldn’t even want to imagine a Turkey in which they were successful,” Bozdağ told daily Hürriyet on July 28, adding that he was faced with objections when he previously drew comparisons with Khomeini.

Turkey’s police will soon receive heavy weapons, Interior Minister Efkan Ala has announced regarding precautions to be taken after the failed July 15 coup attempt.

“The police will obtain heavy weapons in the amount that they will use. It’s not our policy to act as if nothing happened,” Ala told broadcaster TGRT on July 28, adding that heavy weapons had been given to the police in the past.

“They had heavy weapons before. They obtained them on Feb. 28,” he said, referring to the “Feb. 28 process” which eventually led to the notorious military intervention of Feb. 28, 1997, which is often described as a “post-modern coup.”

PARIS: Daesh's affiliated news agency Aamaq on Thursday released a video purportedly showing one of the two men who attacked a church in northern France this week urging all Muslims to destroy the country.

In the pre-recorded video, Abdel-Malik Nabir Petitjean, formally identified as one of the men who killed a priest in the attack before being shot dead by police, addresses President Francois Hollande and Prime Minister Manuel Valls directly.

“The times have changed. You will suffer what our brothers and sisters are suffering. We are going to destroy your country,” the man Aamaq alleges is Petitjean says in the recording.

“Brothers go out with a knife, whatever is needed, attack them, kill them en masse,” he says, calling on Muslims to attack allies of the international coalition forces fighting Islamist militants in Syria.

Reuters could not immediately verify the authenticity of the video.

http://www.arabnews.com/node/961126/world

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French PM suggests interim ban on foreign funding of mosques

29 July 2016

France's prime minister has suggested a temporary ban on foreign financing for mosques and a "new relationship with Islam in France," after a spate of attacks in the country claimed by the Islamic State group.

Manuel Valls told Le Monde: "We need to reset and invent a new relationship with Islam in France," and called for imams to be "trained in France, not elsewhere".

He added he was "open to the idea that - for a period yet to be determined - there should be no financing from abroad for the construction of mosques".

Valls and Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve have come under fire for perceived security failings that have failed to prevent three major terror attacks in France in 18 months.

The latest happened at a church in Rouen, where an elderly priest was killed by two men claiming allegiance to the Islamic State group.

IS 'running out of gas' in Europe, says ex-MI6 counter-terrorism chief

29 July 2016

The idea of the Islamic State (IS) is “running out of gas” in Europe, according to a former director of counter-terrorism at MI6.

Richard Barrett, former director of global counter terrorism operations at the British intelligence agency and currently a special adviser to the Soufan Group, told an audience at King College London that he didn’t think “we should be too concerned about terrorism” and that ultimately it would be a “relatively minor irritation in our lives", compared to what it means to populations in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere.

In speech that called for a more nuanced and level-headed approach to the threat of IS, he warned that by amplifying the importance and global scope of attacks like the ones in Nice or Normandy, governments risked making the militant group look much bigger than they actually are.

Civilian casualties in Afghanistan reached 5,166 during the first half of this year, an all-time high, with children paying a heavy toll, reports the United Nations.

The report by the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) comes as the Taliban is waging an increasingly violent insurgency alongside its rival the Islamic State branch in Afghanistan known as the Khorasan province (ISIL-K/IS-KP).

Despite nearly $70 billion in U.S. taxpayer funds invested into developing the Afghan security troops and more than a decade in training primarily by the American military, the force is still facing capability gaps.

The EU enlargement commissioner, Johannes Hahn, implicitly warned Turkey Friday that the bloc would freeze the country's accession talks if its post-coup crackdown violates the rule of law.

"While I am of the opinion that since the coup attempt the measures taken have been disproportionate, I need (to see) black-and-white facts about how these people are treated," Hahn told German daily Sueddeutsche Zeitung.

"And if there is even the slightest doubt that the (treatment) is improper, then the consequences will be inevitable."

Since the failed coup on July 15, Turkey has detained nearly 16,000 people from the military, police, the justice system, education establishment and the media, in a crackdown sharply criticised in Europe and the United States.

LAHORE: A LeT 'ameer' was leading the funeral procession of Hizbul commander Burhan Wani who was killed in an encounter, Mumbai attack mastermind and JuD chief Hafiz Saeed has claimed, in a pointer to the Pakistan-based terror group's role in anti-India protests in Kashmir Valley.

"Burhan Wani was martyred. Lakhs of Kashmiris came to the streets to attend his funeral. Did you see a man who was being carried on shoulders by the crowd? Do you know this youth who was leading the procession? Do you know who he is? He is 'ameer' of LeT," said Saeed, the founder of Laskar-e-Taiba (LeT).

His statement that LeT 'ameer' Abu Dujana was leading Wani's funeral procession earlier this month after the young Hizb terrorist was killed in an encounter with security forces in Kashmir was made at a rally in Faisalabad, about 185 km from here.

RAWALPINDI: The Punjab Home Department on Wednesday directed Punjab police to take strict action against activists of Jamaat-ud-Dawa Pakistan (JuD), an organisation which is on the UN watch list and is accused by India of being involved in the 2008 Mumbai attacks.

It is headed by Hafiz Mohammad Saeed, who has been engaged in fundraising throughout the country via the organisation’s charity wing Falah-e-Insayat Foundation (FIF).

In its directions issued to the additional inspector general of police operations Punjab and to divisional police chiefs across the province, the home department has asked for details of fundraising by JuD and other proscribed organisations as the activity is against the law.

Pakistan is ranked sixth on the list of countries where Christians are most persecuted, according to World Watch List 2016.

The survey, conducted by Open Doors, an organisation working to help persecuted Christians and churches worldwide, highlights the top 50 countries where it is most difficult to live as a Christian. The report found that Pakistan’s blasphemy laws continue to be abused to settle personal scores, particularly against minorities, including Christians.

In just two weeks in March this year, 247 men, women and children became part of the terror statistic in attacks carried out at soft targets in six countries.

In an attempt to show these victims are not just another number and to address reader concerns that not all victims of terror are treated equally, The New York Times went to all these places to track each individual who lost his/her life and unearthed some heartbreaking stories.

A top Pakistani court has allowed the examination of a boat used by the 10 LeT terrorists to reach India for carrying out the 2008 Mumbai attack, overturning an anti-terrorism court verdict which it termed as “flawed”.

“The Islamabad High Court has set aside the verdict of trial court (Anti-Terrorism Court) in Mumbai case for not allowing sending of a commission to Karachi for inspection of Al-Fauz boat used by Mumbai attack terrorists,” Chaudhry Azhar, prosecution chief in the Mumbai attack case, said.

Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) chairman Imran Khan in an interview with Al Jazeera's Mehdi Hasan dismissed allegations of support for the Taliban as "absolute nonsense".

"Yes, they are [a terrorist group]," he conceded. "Anyone who kills innocent people are terrorists," Khan said.

Khan has often been criticised for adopting a "soft stance" on militants, as he has stressed for dialogue over militancy on several occasions. In one interview, he has described Taliban fighters as people oppressed by the state: "Terrorism in Pakistan is a reaction to drone strikes and military operations; suicide bombings are a tool of the weak used to attack oppressors."

He has also rejected his opponents labelling of him as "Taliban Khan", and said, “I am often made out to be the naughty boy who supports the Taliban."

CILACAP: The execution of Zulfiqar Ali, a Pakistani national who was on death row in Indonesia, has been halted, on early Friday.

He was convicted of drug-related charges in a controversial trial.

Maryam Nawaz, daughter of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, said in a Tweet a last-ditch attempt by her father to convince Indonesian authorities to halt Ali's execution proved effective "despite [a] bleak chance of success".

ISLAMABAD: Despite amendments proposed by the Senate Standing Committee on IT, the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Bill (PECB) continues to pose a threat to fundamental rights, local civil rights organisations said in a joint statement issued on Thursday.

“Every aspect in the law is critical. The overall spirit of the law is obvious, curbing freedom of expression on all information systems, phones and computers,” Aftab Alam, a human rights activist who believes the law hurts citizens’ privacy, said.

As the approved version of the PECB makes its way to the Senate for discussion, local NGOs have urged senators to stand up for civil liberties enshrined in the Constitution and take into consideration amendments suggested by the relevant stakeholders.

The amended version of the proposed law was adopted by the Senate IT committee on Tuesday.

ISLAMABAD: Chief of Army Staff (COAS) General Raheel Sharif on Thursday said that as the army consolidates the gains of Zarb-e-Azb, it would continue to take action against terrorists of all hue and colour. “Our resolve to break the nexus between terrorists, criminality and corruption is unflinching,” he said while talking to a gathering at the Chinese Embassy to commemorate the 89th anniversary of founding of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA).

General Raheel Sharif said that China and Pakistan were partners in fight against the menace of terrorism for the common good of humanity. “We seek enhanced regional cooperation to root out the menace of extremism and terrorism for enduring peace and stability in the region.”

BEIRUT -- Hamada Bayloun is not particularly religious, but across his entire upper back spreads a large tattoo of the most revered saint in Shiite Islam, Imam Ali.

He is one of a growing number of Shiite Muslims in Lebanon who have inked themselves with Shiite religious and political symbols as a show of pride in their community since neighboring Syria's civil war broke out in 2011, fanning hatreds between Shiites, Sunnis and other faiths across the region.

The 30-year-old Bayloun got his tattoo a few months after the war began, partly as a response to attempts to bomb Shiite shrines in Syria and Iraq.

"We can't respond with car bombs, but (through tattoos) we can show our strength and love for the prophet and his family," he said, referring to Islam's Prophet Muhammad, who was Ali's cousin and father-in-law.

Full report at:

http://www.dailyherald.com/article/20160729/news/307299992/

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ISIS executes 24 after seizing Syrian village

29 July 2016

ISIS has executed at least 24 civilians after seizing a village in northern Syria from a US-backed Kurdish-Arab alliance, a monitor said Friday.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said ISIS executed 24 civilians "in the last 24 hours" after taking Buyir from the Syrian Democratic Forces.

The village is located some 10 kilometers northwest of Manbij, a key waypoint between the Turkish border and the ISIS de facto capital of Raqqa city.

Syria’s Nusra Front to end link with militant network founded by Osama

29 July 2016

BEIRUT: Al Qaeda's powerful Syrian branch, the Nusra Front, announced on Thursday it was ending its relationship with the global militant network founded by Osama bin Laden, to remove a pretext used by world powers to attack Syrians.

The announcement came as Russia and President Bashar al-Assad's government declared a "humanitarian operation" in the besieged rebel-held sector of Aleppo, opening "safe corridors" so people can flee Syria's most important opposition stronghold.

Washington said that appeared to be an attempt to depopulate the city and make fighters surrender. The opposition called it a euphemism for forced displacement.

BEIRUT: The Syrian branch of al Qaeda, al Nusra Front, said Thursday it was breaking ties with the global terror network, in a video showing its leader Abu Mohamad al-Jolani for the first time.

The footage broadcast by Al-Jazeera news channel follows several days of online chatter over a split between al Qaeda and its Syria affiliate, a main rival of the Islamic State (IS) militant group from which it wants to distance itself as a target of foreign air strikes.

Appearing in public for the first time, Jolani said al Nusra changed its name to Jabhat Fateh al-Sham (Front of the Conquest of Syria) and would unify ranks with other mainstream fighters in Syria.

Full report at:

http://tribune.com.pk/story/1151652/al-qaeda-syria-branch-split/

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Syria: Over 25 Civilians Killed in US Airstrikes in Northeastern Aleppo

29 July 2016

Over 25 civilians were killed and at least 100 more were wounded in US Air Force's attacks on an ISIL-held village near the town of Manbij.

The US coalition struck the densely populated village of Aghanndorh near Manbij, causing severe damage to a number of civilian sites, including several residential homes.

Many of the victims were children and elderly civilians.

Director of a leading anti-war group said on last week that the US government could best protect innocent civilians in Syria by sending its indiscriminate airstrikes and halting the arming and funding of militant groups in the country.

Syrian soldiers and the Palestinian Liwa al-Quds forces launched a new offensive on Nourladdeen al-Zinki terrorists' defense lines in the Eastern side of Handarat refugee camp, hunting more militants behind the beheading a 12-year-old Palestinian kid.

The Syrian Armed Forces and Palestinian fighters entered the Shaher district near Handarat and seized some building blocks.

Also, Liwa al-Quds' forces, in an offensive near the Palestine Mosque on Thursday night, killed a large group of terrorists there, including the Nouralddeen al-Zinki commander Omar Salkhu to avenge the death of a teenage boy Nouriddeen Al-Zinki beheaded last week in the Handarat Refugee Camp.

Full report at:

http://en.farsnews.com/newstext.aspx?nn=13950508000262

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Terrorists Laying Down Arms in Aleppo as President Assad Offers Amnesty

29 July 2016

A large number of terrorists laid down arms and surrendered to Syrian army in Aleppo province as the soldiers of president Bashar al-Assad are racing towards Aleppo after completing siege of the city and capturing the most vital stronghold of the militants in the region, Bani Zeid.

"Scores of Takfiri militants laid down arms and turned themselves in to the Syrian army in Bani Zeid and al-Lairamoun to be pardoned," a battlefield source said on Thursday.

"The move by the terrorists in Aleppo province came after army troops put the militants to rout in Bani Zeid and al-Lairamoun and completed the siege of Aleppo city in the East," the source added.

Full report at:

http://en.farsnews.com/newstext.aspx?nn=13950507000822

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Syria rebels prevent civilians from leaving Aleppo: Monitor

29 July 2016

Only a few residents of Syria's Aleppo were able to leave encircled opposition-held districts through humanitarian corridors before rebels prevented them from fleeing, a monitor said Friday.

Russia, a key ally of President Bashar al-Assad, on Thursday announced the opening of aid passages for civilians and surrendering fighters seeking to exit the city's rebel-held eastern neighbourhoods.

Maharashtra Anti-Terror Squad (ATS) today submitted a report to the Mumbai Police in the Zakir Naik case. Mumbai Police is likely to file a detailed report on the controversial Islamic preacher by this weekend.

Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis had ordered an inquiry against Naik after it emerged that his sermons were followed by Dhaka attackers.

Mumbai Police however said that they were ready with the report four days ago but it got delayed because of the fresh arrests made by Kochi Police. Maharashtra ATS sources said the Kochi case indicates an indirect link of Islamic Research Foundation (IRF) with ISIS since the arrested accused, Arshid, was working for IRF as a guest relations manager.

NEW DELHI: Contrary to an earlier assessment by intelligence agencies that some Indians started associating themselves with the ideology of a self-proclaimed caliphate after the Islamic State came into existence in June 2014, an NIA chargesheet filed on Monday has a different story to tell.

A 36-year-old man from Bhatkal, Adnan Hassan, considered close to Indian Mujahideen founder leaders Riyaz Bhatkal and Iqbal Bhatkal, was attempting to recruit young jehadis to the cause of a self-proclaimed caliphate since October-November 2013.

West Bengal: Illicit poppy cultivation now a principal source of funds for terror outfits at border

Jul 29, 2016

Illicit poppy cultivation in the border districts of West Bengal and smuggling of the contraband across the border to Bangladesh and elsewhere are worrying intelligence authorities because it has turned out to be among the the principal sources of funds for terror outfits like the Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh.

CID sources told PTI that the strategic position of these districts facilitated rise in illegal cultivation of poppy, which “has become a major fund generating business drawing several hundreds of youths into it”.

Communal tension gripped Deoband on Thursday after a temple was vandalised late on Wednesday night. The police swung into action soon after the incident and arrested one person. The accused allegedly vandalised the statues with a hammer. He will be tried under the stringent National Security Act.

“The culprit is 21-year-old Sadiq,” Deoband Senior Superintendent of Police Pradeep Kumar told the media. “We have arrested him and recovered the hammer he used to break the statues. He will be tried under the NSA.

‘Big terror catch’: Militant caught in Kashmir is ‘Pakistani’ national

Jul 29, 2016

A suspected Pakistani national arrested from Kashmir and described by the government as a “big terror catch” had crossed over to India to attack security forces and fuel more unrest in the valley, counter-terror officials said on Thursday.

The National Investigation Agency (NIA) has been asked to take up the case against the terror suspect, Bahadur Ali, who was arrested on Tuesday following an encounter with security forces in Kupwara district. Four other terrorists were gunned down.

“The NIA registered a case on Wednesday and Ali was brought to Delhi late last night. A multi-agency interrogation of Ali is on at a safe house in the national capital,” said an NIA official who spoke on the condition of anonymity given.

Muslims make up 14.23% of India’s population. They are, however, nearly 25% of the 3.7 lakh individuals who have been listed as beggars by the Government of India.

Activists claim that the data — released last month — on the religious orientation of those deemed ‘non workers’ in Census 2011, highlights, once again, the limited or unequal access that certain communities or groups of citizens have to government schemes and services, which pushes them to destitution.

Rajnath to raise issue of Pak support to terror at SAARC meeting in Islamabad

PTI | Jul 28, 2016

NEW DELHI: Pakistan's sustained support to cross-border terrorism will be raised by Home Minister Rajnath Singh during his two-day visit to Islamabad to attend the SAARC+ ministerial conference beginning August 3.

Rajnath, who will attend the SAARC Home Interior/Home Ministers' conference, is expected to bluntly ask Pakistan to stop sponsoring acts of terror in India, official sources said.

This will be the first visit to Pakistan by any senior Indian leader after the Pathankot attack on January 2, which created tension between the two countries.

The home minister may provide documentary proof of the involvement of Pakistan's state and non-state actors in terror acts in Jammu &amp; Kashmir+ and other parts during separate meetings he is likely to have with his counterpart Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan and Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.

India’s ‘unfinished agenda’ is to retrieve illegally occupied part of J-K: Jitendra Singh

Jul 29, 2016

Taking on Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif for describing Kashmir as ‘unfinished agenda’ of the United Nations, Minister of State in Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) Jitendra Singh on Thursday said India’s only unfinished agenda with Islamabad is to retrieve the part of Jammu and Kashmir, which continues to be illegally occupied even after 68 years of partition.

Stating that India’s position has always been very consistent and clear, Singh said: “As far as India is concerned, with regard to Jammu and Kashmir the only unfinished agenda with Pakistan is as to how to retrieve the part of Jammu and Kashmir which continues to remain under illegally occupation of Pakistan even after 68 years of partition and independence.”

“And that is also the position stated in the unanimously passed resolution of the Parliament in 1994,” he told ANI.

WASHINGTON: The father of a Muslim American soldier killed in Iraq posed a question to Donald Trump: Have you read the Constitution?

To rapturous cheers, Pakistan-born Khizr Khan fiercely attacked the billionaire businessman Thursday at the Democratic convention in Philadelphia, saying that if it was up to Trump, his son never would have been American or served in the military.

Khan said that Hillary Clinton, by contrast, “called my son the best of America.”

The address was the latest effort by Democrats to highlight their diversity and criticize Trump’s most contentious plans. Beyond his proposed wall across Mexico, the billionaire businessman has threatened to ban Muslims from entering the United States if he becomes president.

Full report at:

http://www.arabnews.com/node/961516/world

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Unity the theme of American Muslims luncheon at DNC

29 July 2016

PHILADELPHIA - The American Muslim Democratic Caucus Thursday was a luncheon at the Pennsylvania Convention Center, and nothing brings people together like food.

The caucus was so popular, there was a waiting list despite a number of competing events, including a panel on faith and social change movements just down the street.

Bringing people together was the theme of the day: Those who supported Hillary Clinton and those who backed Bernie Sanders. Muslims, Christians and Jews. Women and men. Party elders and young activists.

Muslims on US watch list should be electronically tagged: former NYC mayor

29 July 2016

Former New York City mayor, who is advising Donald Trump on national security, says electronic tags should be considered for those on terrorism lists.

“I would think that’s an excellent idea,” Giuliani told NJ.com. “If you’re on the terror watch list, I should know you’re on the terror watchlist. You’re on there for a reason,” said Rudy Giuliani at an RNC at the DNC event.

The former NYC mayor added that Republican nominee Trump could employ the same tactics used in France. One of the attackers who killed a priest in Normandy, France, on Tuesday was wearing an electronic tag. He had reportedly been arrested and detained for 10 months after attempting to go to Syria. Upon his release, security services put an electronic tag on him and he was only allowed to leave his house between 8.30am and 12.30pm; the time frame during which he committed the crime.

U.S. Commander: 12 Terrorist or 'Extremist' Groups Now Operating in Afghanistan

July 29, 2016

(CNSNews.com) - Fifteen years after the U.S. went to war in Afghanistan to deny al Qaeda safe haven, there are now a dozen terrorist or "extremist" groups operating in the country, according to the top U.S. military commander.

That includes the Islamic State, or Daesh, which is exporting its radical ideology from its base in Iraq and Syria to Afghanistan and other countries.

"Daesh is only one of nine U.S.-designated terrorist organizations here in Afghanistan," Gen. John Nicholson, the commander of U.S. forces in Afghanistan, told a news conference on Thursday. "Additionally there are three other violent extremist organizations.

"These groups are the principle focus of our counter-terrorism mission and the -- the purpose of helping the Afghans to build their capabilities so that they can maintain pressure on these enemy groups and prevent them from realizing their trans-national ambitions."

Some Turkish officers with whom the United States used to have a relationship have been imprisoned for their alleged role in the July 15 coup attempt, the head of the U.S. Central Command said July 28, as the U.S. director of national intelligence said the crackdown on the military is hindering cooperation in the U.S.-led fight against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).

“We have certainly had relationships with a lot of Turkish leaders – military leaders in particular. I am concerned about what the impact is on those relationships as we continue,” Gen. Joseph Votel said at the Aspen Security Forum, a think tank in Colorado.

Responding to a question about whether some of those leaders were now in jail, he said, “Yes, I think some of them are in jail.”

US Secretary of State John Kerry plans to meet Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in Paris on Saturday to discuss progress towards a two-state solution, the State Department said.

"The secretary is not looking at trying to make progress based on a fixed date on the calendar," spokesman John Kirby told reporters on Thursday.

Instead, Kerry will speak with "Abbas about prospects for a two-state solution, and trying to make meaningful progress to create the conditions ... where that solution can be more successfully pursued," Kirby said.

US military says it may have killed more civilians in latest airstrike in Syria

29 July 2016

A day after announcing a formal inquiry into what watchdogs call the United States’ worst civilian casualty incident in its war against the Islamic State militant group, the US military said that more civilians may have been killed in another airstrike around the same Syrian city.

Manbij, the scene of intense fighting for over two months between Isis and US-backed militant groups, has now experienced another airstrike that “may have resulted in civilian casualties”, the US Central Command (Centcom) disclosed late on Thursday.

“We can confirm the coalition conducted airstrikes in the area in the last 24 hours,” Centcom said in a statement.

As Democrats focus on other issues, GOP decries lack of attention to terror threat

29 July 2016

PHILADELPHIA — Democrats presented a symbolically powerful national security argument for presidential nominee Hillary Clinton as their party convention closed Thursday, amounting to a long-planned rebuttal of complaints by Republicans that the party was not focused enough on vital matters of war and terrorism.

“We trust her judgment. We believe in her vision for a united America and we believe in her vision of America as the just and strong leader against the forces of hatred, chaos and darkness,” retired Marine Gen. John R. Allen thundered. “I tell you without any hesitation or reservation that Hillary Clinton will be exactly the kind of commander in chief America needs today,” said Allen, who stood on stage with a tableau of fellow retired officers and enlisted men and women.

ISLAMABAD: US Ambassador to Pakistan David Hale on Thursday said the United States supported Pakistan’s flourishing democracy and believed it to be on “solid basis” for stability and prosperity in the country. “We support vigorously Pakistan’s flourishing democracy. I cannot speak about past, but now we do believe in Pakistan’s democracy and we believe it on solid basis for stability and prosperity,” the US Ambassador said in an interview with a private television channel (Geo News) aired on Thursday night.

BENGHAZI, Libya: Libyan forces loyal to a controversial general have wrestled back control of a Benghazi neighborhood from jihadists, following months of fighting to drive the Islamists from the country’s second city.

General Khalifa Haftar’s troops took the Al-Gwarcha district of Benghazi, which has been marred by unrest since his fighters launched a campaign to drive extremists out of the city earlier this year.

“We dealt them a firm blow, it’s a major victory,” Khalifa Al-Obeidi, head of press for Haftar’s Libyan National Army, told AFP Thursday.

Full report at:

http://www.arabnews.com/node/961501/middle-east

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UN humanitarian convoy in Nigeria ambushed by Boko Haram

29 July 2016

A United Nations humanitarian convoy was ambushed by Boko Haram jihadists Thursday in Nigeria's restive northeast, leaving several people wounded, the UN children's agency and the Nigerian army said.

It was the first such attack on aid workers in the volatile region, the epicentre of the seven-year Boko Haram insurgency in Nigeria's mainly-Muslim north.

"The convoy was travelling from Bama to Maiduguri in Borno State, Nigeria, returning from delivering desperately needed assistance," when it was ambushed, UNICEF said in a statement Friday.

Rabat – Taza police officers arrested, on Thursday, a 25-year-old computer engineer suspected of his involvement in making and distributing CDs inciting terrorism and defending ISIS terrorist operations, the National Police (DGSN) announced.

According to preliminary investigations, a group of citizens handed security services CDs containing recordings, inciting terrorism and defending ISIS terrorist acts, which they found near their houses or were slipped under their doors by anonymous individuals, the DGSN said in a press release.

Human Rights Watch has issued a report accusing the youth wing of the ruling party to have gang-raped women and girls whose male relatives are suspected to be opposition activists. HRW said that 323 cases of rape or sexual assault, affecting 264 women and 59 girls, were reported from May to September 2015.

HRW interviewed more than 70 survivors who have fled to a refugee camp in Tanzania.

HRW researchers found out that women were being targeted by the Imbonerakure, the youth wing of President Pierre Nkurunziza's ruling party.

The report said that some of them were tied up and raped at gun or knife point, as their families and children were nearby and forced to watch.

Jakarta. The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein has condemned a third round of executions of death row inmates at the notorious Nusakambangan prison island and called on Indonesia to abandon the death penalty altogether.

"The increasing use of the death penalty in Indonesia is terribly worrying. I urge the government to end this unjust practice immediately as it is incompatible with human rights," said Al Hussein in a statement on Wednesday (27/07).

"I find it deeply disturbing that Indonesia has already executed 19 people since 2013, making it the most prolific executioner in Southeast Asia," Al Hussein said.

Cilacap. Indonesia executed four convicted drug traffickers, three of them Nigerians, in the early hours of Friday, leaving the fate of 10 others uncertain.

The Africans and an Indonesian man were shot by firing squad during a thunderstorm shortly after midnight on Nusakambangan Island in Central Java, as the government ignored international calls for clemency and pushed ahead with what it considers a war on drugs.

The attorney general said on Wednesday that 14 prisoners, including citizens of India, Pakistan, and Zimbabwe, would be executed this weekend.

In official said on Friday the planned executions would go ahead "in stages" but declined to give a time frame.

Jakarta. Despite international calls to abandon the death penalty altogether, the government went ahead with the third round of executions at the notorious Nusakambangan prison island, Central Java, early Friday (29/07).

The executions commenced slightly after midnight, after postponed by falling tents due to heavy rain and strong wind.

“[The executions] was at 00.45 a.m.,” said an unnamed source as quoted by Antara.

However, the number of executed inmates was not revealed, as authorities have yet to announce an official statement.

Australia's Muslim migrants on edge, race relations falter with rise of the right

29 July 2016

Race relations in Australia have deteriorated so badly that some community leaders fear violence will erupt in a political vacuum where the new government, elected with a bare majority, must rely on the support of parties that have fomented the discord.

The potential for violence after a bitter election campaign, which featured calls for a ban on Muslim immigration, is palpable for people like Afghan-born Muhammad Taqi Haidari.

Haidari, from Afghanistan’s Shia Muslim Hazara minority, no longer tells people his name is Muhammad, preferring to use Taqi.

“When there is a problem like in Paris and now in Nice they hear the name Muhammad. They include me as one of those Muhammads,” Haidari, who lives in Sydney’s less affluent western suburbs, told Reuters.

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New Age Islam(Hindi: न्यू ऐज इस्लाम,Urdu: نیو ایج اسلام,Arabic: نيو أج اسلام) is aliberal Musliminstitution based in New Delhi,India.[1]It encouragesprogressivethinking amongMuslimsworldwide by exposing them to news, analyses and opinions on a variety of social, political, theological and spiritual issues related toIslam. It also provides a platform for debate on contemporary concerns facing Muslims, such asreligious extremism,terrorismand relations with other religious groups.[2][3][4]